"Research Associate in Genetic Engineering of Microbiomes"

The University of Manchester - Manchester Institute of Biotechnology

Location: Manchester

Salary: £37,694 to £46,049 per annum, depending on relevant experience

Hours: Full Time

Contract Type: Fixed-Term/Contract

Job reference: SAE-030393

Faculty/Organisational Unit: Science and Engineering

Location: Manchester Institute of Biotechnology

Employment type: Fixed Term

Division/Team: Department of Chemistry

Hours Per Week: Full Time

Closing date: 12/01/2026

Contract Duration: From 30 January 2026 for up to 48 months

School/Directorate: School of Natural Sciences

Working within Manchester Institute of Biotechnology under the supervision of Professor Neil Dixon, the post is funded by the BBSRC strategic Longer and Larger grant “Rules of life in CO2-driven microbial communities: Microbiome engineering for a Net Zero future”. In this project we will deploy state of the art metagenomic engineering tools to permit in situ genetic augmentation to modify microbiome function. The long-term global is that these engineered microbiomes will support the transition to a sustainable bioeconomy and carbon-negative production of chemicals.

You will be responsible for conducting research under the supervision of Profs Dixon and Nixon to engineer the microbial communities from hot springs that successfully grow on CO2 and H2. You will be responsible for the design and deployment of CRISPR-based microbiome engineering tools, to both isolate individual community members for analysis and to augment the entire microbiome community with modified functions. These isolates and augmented communities will phenotyped and further adapted under batch cultivation experiments and continuous cultivation studies using flow through bioreactors. You will work closely with other postdocs and PhD students in this project, who will be applying complimentary approaches to the same systems (including metabarcoding, metagenomic and metatranscriptomic sequencing approaches, as well as multi-species metabolic modelling). You will also be supported by senior technical specialists.

What you will get in return:

• Fantastic market leading Pension scheme
• Excellent employee health and wellbeing services including an Employee Assistance Programme
• Exceptional starting annual leave entitlement, plus bank holidays
• Additional paid closure over the Christmas period
• Local and national discounts at a range of major retailers

As an equal opportunities employer we welcome applicants from all sections of the community regardless of age, sex, gender (or gender identity), ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation and transgender status. All appointments are made on merit.

Our University is positive about flexible working – you can find out more here.

Hybrid working arrangements may be considered.

Please be aware that due to the number of applications we unfortunately may not able to provide individual feedback on your application.

Please note that we are unable to respond to enquiries, accept CVs or applications from Recruitment Agencies.

Any recruitment enquiries from recruitment agencies should be directed to People.Recruitment@manchester.ac.uk.

Enquiries about the vacancy, shortlisting and interviews:

Name: Professor Neil Dixon
Email: neil.dixon@manchester.ac.uk

General enquiries:
Email: People.recruitment@manchester.ac.uk

Technical support: 0161 850 2004

This vacancy will close for applications at midnight on the closing date.

Please see the link below for the Further Particulars document which contains the person specification criteria.

Supporting Documents
SAE-030393 - Research Associate in Genetic Engineering of Microbiomes FPs (PDF, 163KB)